10 Out of 10: A Decade of Summer in the City

Summer in the City has come a long way since its humble beginnings in a London park 10 years ago. TenEighty chats to the founders, panellists, performers and many more about how the convention has evolved over the past decade.

With snacks, musical instruments, and walking tours of London, organisers hoped the 2009 Summer in the City would be the biggest UK YouTube gathering yet. While he may not have predicted the rise and evolution of the popular online video convention, founder Tom Burns says there was one thing at its heart when it first started.

“Community,” he says, “and I would like to think that it’s the same now. Back then it was about allowing people to hang out and meet one another for more than just one day.

“We had gatherings in Leicester Square quite frequently, but we wanted something that would allow YouTubers to meet one another for longer periods of time and hang out,” Tom continues. “It always felt so fleeting when we would hang out at other times.”

Fast forward a year and co-founder Dave Bullas says the team were more relaxed than the year before, and that they had a familiar setting for the evening gigs which they used the year before – something he believes separated the convention from other events at the time.

“The venue was called the Luminaire, and it was a wonderful traditional music venue,” he explains. “We had contacted dozens of places trying to find somewhere that would let us have under 18s at the show, and this was pretty much the only one that would.”

Photo by Clark Gray

Unfortunately the Luminaire has since closed down, but Dave still reminisces about those early gigs. “It was a fairly standard gig, the only difference was all the acts had built their audiences online, which back then was considered a niche!”

Dave continues: “Aside from the gig in the evening, there were no real activities back then. No discussion panels, no exhibition hall, no funfair, no need for meet and greets as nobody was famous enough… Except maybe Charlie [McDonnell] – he got a crowd even in 2010.”

The interactions between creators and viewers at Summer in the City is also something Gary C recalls from the event, saying that it was like “you could talk to and be friends with anyone” at the 2011 gathering.

“There were no walls,” he explains. “Subscriber count and fandoms were there but people just hung out, played instruments, sang songs and enjoyed the sun.”

“At the time a few people like charlieissocoollike had a crowd of people around them wanting photos and signatures,” Gary adds. “Overall the fan culture was only just starting.

“The need to meet your favourite YouTuber didn’t dominate.YouTubers – it was all YouTubers at the time – would sit with their friends and hang out. It was as much our SitC as it was the people who watched us.

In the early days, it was a regular occurrence for everyone to hang out with each other. “We knew who was a ‘YouTuber’ and who wasn’t, but it didn’t seem to bother most people,” says Gary.

“Many of us would go to a local pub afterwards or go for something to eat in big groups. The line between audience and creator was very thin.”

Just one year later, the community had changed once more, growing in size drastically. The gathering became the convention, and moved away from its usual open-field locations into a conference and concert venue, The Brewery.

“Volunteers are absolutely the backbone of the event … SitC simply wouldn’t run without their support.”

For SitC volunteer Georgie Boom, having volunteers at the 2012 convention was a matter of “pure necessity”.

“There were so many more people in attendance than the years before,” she explains. “All of a sudden people were needed to work on creator merch stands, supervise the photo booths, manage the meet and greets and so on.

“Volunteering in 2012 seemed pretty reactive whereas now we like to have solutions to all problems before they arise.”

Georgie goes on to add that she thinks people sometimes underestimate how much work goes into the running of a convention like Summer in the City, and that volunteers play a key role in making it happen year on year.

“Volunteers are absolutely the backbone of the event,” she says. “I say this every year – SitC simply wouldn’t run without their support. We have a team of around 200 now and every single one of them are needed to make sure the weekend runs without a hitch.

“Without the volunteers the panels, stages, and meet and greets wouldn’t run, attendees wouldn’t gain entry into the event, and there would be no one there to answer questions or point you in the right direction – even the goody bags are filled by volunteers on the Thursday!”

The move was made for practical reasons, but Summer in the City faced a lot of criticism for taking it inside. Yet in 2012 the event was still free, and it was reported that around 1,000 people were stuck queueing outside when the venue reached capacity. If anything, this proved the need for the event to step it up even more.

“It was a bit of a culture shock after coming from the very communal park-based events to something more organised,” recalls animator and musician Jonti ‘Weebl’ Picking.

“It’s a good thing that SitC became a more formal event because God knows what would have happened otherwise. Tom and [the team] did the right thing.”

Photos by Rebecca Need-Menear

Jonti, who’s famous for viral songs such as Badgers, Narwhals and Magical Trevor, headlined at the 2012 event for the first time and says he loved performing on stage.

“We’d practiced for months to get ready and it rekindled my love of performing live,” he says. “The reaction from the audience was amazing.”

He continues: “[It was] nerve-wracking to begin with and then just pure joy to look out and see people singing along and dancing to music I’d made. Honestly, there’s nothing like it.”

The feelings that come with being on a stage is also something Luke Cutforth remembers well. Joining the planning team in 2013, Luke organised the first (and only) SitC Summer Warm Up tour – which saw the convention tour venues in Manchester, Edinburgh and Cardiff.

“Honestly, I had an amazing time on the tour because it allowed me to live out my dream of being on stage, without having to actually write any music,” Luke says. “I would introduce each act and have jokes with the audience, and seeing people have a great time, smiling up at you and excited is the most rewarding feeling in the world.”

Back in London, Summer in the City announced a decision about the pricing of the event. Having had to turn away nearly 1,000 people who had queued up for the free event the year before, the team decided to introduce a ticketing system.

“This is the reality of YouTube gatherings now. There are just… too many people,” read the announcement on the event’s Tumblr page. “Everyone and no one is to blame at the same time. It’s a very complex situation because you cannot just tell certain people to not attend. Especially to a free event in a public space where they have a chance of meeting their favourite YouTubers.

“This is why it is imperative we initiate a ticketing system for SitC this year.”

And it wasn’t just capacity and pricing the SitC team had to consider, it was also security. In September 2012, almost a whole year before SitC’s 2013 event, thousands flocked to Hyde Park in the hope of meeting YouTuber Toby Turner after he announced an impromptu gathering. He had to climb over a fence and into a taxi to avoid getting hurt.

Three months after that, another thousand people were believed to have attended Festive Gathering in London with the likes of Carrie Hope Fletcher and Bertie Gilbert – the latter was escorted away for his own safety by the police. YouTube’s popularity had grown suddenly, and exponentially.

With this development in the community came another change in location for SitC. After one year at The Brewery, the event moved to one of London’s most iconic concert venues, Alexandra Palace. The capacity of 1,000 people in The Brewery was gone – in its place, a figure seven times bigger.

Photo: @SummerInTheCity on Twitter

It was 2013 which, according to Luke, was a “monumental” year for the event, giving it an identity it still has today.

“That was the ʼSH*T JUST GOT REALʼ moment: seeing this giant, ancient building spread out before us, all because of our event.

“But then, Liam [Dryden] and I had to rush off to get some water for the green room and we nipped off down to Morrisons in someoneʼs car and it reminded me that although Summer in the City had grown larger than any of us had dared dream, it was still, at itʼs heart, an event run by friends, built on passion and love, rather than money.

Although Luke has since left the SitC team, he says it was an “honour” to be invited on board. “Most of all, my feeling of being part of SitC was pride,” he explains. “I was so proud of the other organisers for what we achieved (and Tom and Dave continue to achieve), and I was so proud of how many thousands of people we managed to make happy over the course of each weekend.

“Being part of SitC is definitely one of the best things to have come out of my time on YouTube, and I wouldnʼt trade it for the world!”

After a successful first year at Alexandra Palace in 2013, the convention decided to stay on at the London venue for 2014, this time bringing with it some significant changes to the event programme.

Creator Day, the opening day of the event dedicated to content creators looking to grow their channels, had returned to the schedule, alongside a new ticketing system for meet and greets which paved the way for the ballot we know today.

“The spirit of SitC has always remained the same, with community and creativity at the heart of it.”

Much like the community it brings together, Summer in the City was continuing to expand. New panels were introduced to be more representative of the community the event was reflecting, such as the LGBTQ+ and smaller YouTubers panel.

“The spirit of SitC has always remained the same, with community and creativity at the heart of it,” says Chloe Dungate. “It’s evolved with the platform and constantly strives to represent a diverse and growing range of channels and creators which is very cool.”

The artist and YouTuber, who makes videos on the channel ScarfDemon, was among the creators on the first ever Smaller YouTuber panel. Although she found it a little intimidating to start with, Chloe says the session was the start of something special.

“I didn’t know if anyone was going to show up and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to say anything of value. Even despite the panel name itself, I didn’t feel ‘big enough’ to be there,” she admits. “But my fellow panellists, our host and our audience were all amazing and receptive as soon as we got into it, and there was this excitement in the air like it wasn’t really even a panel – more of a gathering within a gathering.

Something which no doubt helped to create that atmosphere was host Paul Neafcy, with a moderating style which quickly broke the ice.

“Paul’s hosting from that panel is honestly still talked about to this day,” Chloe continues. “If anyone went into that panel thinking that barriers had been thrown up between the YouTubers on the stage and the YouTubers in the audience – he broke them all down in an instant.

“He never went on the stage, instead staying amongst the audience and speaking directly to them. He took the formality away from the situation, brought in humour, patience, open-mindedness and made everyone feel heard.”

The tone was one thing, but for small YouTubers in attendance, having their own dedicated panel meant something.

“I think it was just nice to feel heard and represented and counted as part of the community,” says Chloe. “The turnout and response of the audience was a testament to the strength and support of the smaller YouTuber community and showed how powerful and necessary their voices are.

“I think it’s easy for smaller YouTubers, myself included, to feel pushed to the edge and overlooked especially at large events – but something like the Smaller YouTubers panel every year feels like a positive push back.”

Photo by Michael Dean

The launch of new panels continued into 2015’s event with the creation of the YouTube Honesty Hour panel. Inspired by a hashtag which surfaced on Twitter that year, those involved in the session were asked their thoughts and opinions on a range of controversial topics, and they didn’t hold back.

“It was brilliant,” says panellist Jack Dean. “There was no biting of any tongues. The crowd were great too, because they knew exactly what they were going to get, and they joined in too.

“I mean, it was my first proper SitC, so I may have had a couple of butterflies hiding away in the pit of my stomach,” he adds, ”but I’d like to think I didn’t hold back.

I remember quite a lot of questions from the crowd coming specifically at me, so expectation for me to give the truth was obviously quite high — and I’d like to think I didn’t disappoint. I remember this was the first time that questions around the topic of YouTuber books really started getting asked — and rightly so.”

Imaginary drama aside, the panel quickly warmed up, with comments being made about a rival YouTube event which took place the year before.

Known as Amity Fest, creators such as Zoe Sugg, Alfie Deyes and Louise Pentland announced that they were no longer attending Summer in the City in favour of the tour, which saw the high-profile YouTubers stop off in places such as Brighton, Birmingham and Liverpool.

When the tour came to a close, discussion soon turned to what was next for Amity Fest.

“The squad are currently planning BIG things,” read a tweet in June 2015. Yet the plans didn’t seem to come to fruition, with no follow-up to the 2014 tour. Instead was the creation of Hello World, a 2017 event attended by former Amity Fest guests which later became overshadowed by criticism.

Despite the noticeable absence of some of the UK’s biggest creators, SitC 2015 was a successful continuation of the YouTube convention, solidifying its popularity within the community.

The topic of Amity Fest wasn’t the only thing to come up in the Honesty Hour discussions. Conversation also turned to some YouTubers having very different personas in real life, and the audience didn’t hesitate in getting involved in the debate either.

While the 2015 YouTube Honesty Hour panel was a moment for revealing some harsh truths about the platform and those on it, on the other side of the equation was 2016’s SitC Awards, a new ceremony aimed at celebrating the successes of creators over the past year.

“What SitC does best is highlight creators who are not necessarily the usual names you see.”

Twins Niki and Sammy Albon were among those presenting awards at the first event, which Niki describes as “an experience”.

“We’d been told that we were hosting something at the awards moments before. We then had to run on stage without any prep,” he laughs. “Luckily the audience thinks we’re quite good under pressure and I don’t think you could tell!”

Sammy adds: “Sometimes it’s nice to look back at the previous year, and what SitC does best is highlight creators who are not necessarily the usual names you see.

“Regardless of who wins, it’s really heartwarming to see tweets from viewers explaining why they nominated you.”

The pair were on stage to present the awards for Breakthrough of the Year and Vlogger of the Year, and there’s one moment the duo remember particularly well.

Photo by Jon D Barker

“Niki read out Rose and Rosie‘s names on the nomination list for whichever category it was and he couldn’t hide his very obvious bias,” Sammy explains. This was despite the duo not winning in the category. “I believe he actually whispered ‘yes!’ and did some kind of weird excited arm movement.”

“He’s right,” Niki admits. “Ha.”

Though as much as the event has celebrated creators of online video, Summer in the City has also provided a platform for illustrators, artists and designers to share their work through a crafts fair on the Expo Hall floor.

Hattie Clark, known online as Hattie the Pirate, was among those selling items. “It’s such a wonderful opportunity to those who are lesser known and maybe just starting out selling their stuff, like me,” she says. “Places like Comic Con seem a little intense for people who are fairly new to the scene and SitC is such a wonderful and welcoming community.”

So what’s it like selling crafts at SitC? “It’s great,” Hattie replies. “You get the social aspect of meeting people and having lovely chats, with the benefit of displaying your work. The craft section is also like one big happy family and we all have a really fun time together.

One such example of how much fun Hattie and the group had was on the last day of the event in 2017: “Me and the gang turned our music up pretty loud and just had a little party. People were tweeting about the ‘noisy end of the craft fair’ and people were coming to find us. It was fab! I think it was a really fun way to end the weekend.”

“You feel the buzz and love from the community all weekend.”

From one Sunday party to another, YouTuber and musician dodie signed off the 2017 convention with a performance on the SitC mainstage, following on from fellow headliner and artist Emma Blackery the day before.

Onstage, dodie and the band were having the time of their lives: “I mean it was incredible. I just can’t believe that I get to do this! I get to headline my favourite event of the year and play my songs to people who know them and jump around onstage with my friends.

“Conventions are always tough because a lot of the elements can cause some strain on my mental health problems; but there’s just nothing more healing and fun than the shared experience of music and excitement.”

Photo by George Yonge

As well as the upcoming EP, You, being released the week after the SitC performance, the artist was also gearing up for a UK tour later in the year.

Although, according to dodie, there are differences between these gigs and headlining SitC. “On tour you usually arrive at a venue in the morning, sound check to a small tech crew, then hunch over a bag of crisps in a windowless green room until it’s time to play,” she explains. “When you step out onstage it’s so jarring to go from darkness and quiet to a screaming crowd, and so we do all sorts of games and rituals to pump us up for tour shows.

“At SitC, you’ve felt the vibe for three days straight! You feel the buzz and love from the community all weekend and so when we play we’re all bouncing off the walls. There really is such a sense of community at SitC.”

One particular highlight was when her friends joined her on stage, jumping around and singing along, for the final song, Would You Be So Kind. And it’s something that happened in the crowds of fans watching, too.

“I saw a group of friends right at the back wall, dancing and singing arm in arm along to every song,” recalls dodie. “There was a giant crowd in-between us and yet I felt such a strong connection to them in particular. I later found out that they have a group chat and are this really cool bunch of friends, and I loved feeling like I was a part of that.”

As this community vibe returns to the ExCel and organisers blow out the candles on Summer in the City’s 10th birthday cake, Tom Burns reveals his excitement about celebrating the “massive achievement”.

“I’m just excited about celebrating 10 years of this amazing event and the community, and to have a fun time with friends and attendees,” he explains. “Short and simple, but after all these years I’m honestly just really happy to see the event celebrate 10 years!”

With the addition of a new gaming area for attendees to play Fortnite and Minecraft, it’s not just the huge milestone that the organisers are excited about – the latest event has free McFlurrys, as well.

“Also we recently announced our stage line-up and it’s going to be amazing,” he adds. “Free ice cream though, yeah?”

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